Lost & Found

Lost & Found from Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car

Next Stop: Mars
From reader Stuart M. Shippy of Rochester, Indiana, comes this photograph of an early study in aerodynamics. Stuart found the photo in a pictorial publication called Progress of the World: Chicago--New York, published in 30 volumes sometime around 1915. This photo, he writes, appears on page 247 of the Volume 8. Here's the description, in full:

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"The Torpedo Shaped Motor Car. This remarkable automobile, built from the design furnished by Count Marco Ricotti of Milan, is capable of attaining greater speed equipped as in the accompanying illustration than when stripped to the chassis. The Ricotti car is fitted with a 50 horse-power four-cylinder motor, which enables the 'torpedo' to cover ground at the rate of 80 miles an hour."
From what we've been able to dig out of the Hemmings library, this car was apparently constructed by Carrozzeria Castagna on an Alfa Romeo 40/60hp chassis. One thing we don't know is whatever became of it. If anyone knows the car's fate, please drop us a line.
Bowled Over
The fellow in the bowler hat, reader Russ Carey writes, is his wife's Uncle Joseph of Glasgow, Scotland. "Any information you can send will be greatly appreciated--I love your magazine," Russ writes from Eugene, Oregon. The photo, he says, dates from the 1920s. He suggests that the car might be called an Alvin, a marque we couldn't find listed in our catalogs. We think he might be off by one letter, because this does bear a resemblance to an early Alvis, a car you might quite likely find in Glasgow. What do you think?
Jet-Powered
Reader G. Ach (and our apologies if we've misread your handwriting) of Yorba Linda, California, found a yellowed front page of the News Chronicle, a London newspaper, behind an old mirror. The page, dated September 25, 1956, features an article about the Rover jet turbine car that was to be on display at "The Show"--meaning the International Motor Show at London's Earls Court, of course.
The car, called the T3, is no mystery--it still exists, in fact, as part of the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon, U.K. But it's interesting to see the prominence that the story received, right at the top of the page, and the excitement it generated. "A British car firm, Rovers [sic], have beaten the world again with a jet-turbine-engined car suitable for everyday use--a handsome 130 MPH saloon which will be on their stand at the Motor Show next month," the News Chronicle reported, with more than a bit of national pride. The illustration points out the car's rear-mounted gas turbine engine, all-wheel drive, fiberglass body construction and lack of a radiator. The writer, Alan Brinton, called the Rover "the best thing that has happened in Britain's motor industry for decades."
Rover built its first gas-turbine-powered car, JET 1, in 1950, using expertise it had gained during the war on aircraft engines. T3 was actually the fourth turbine passenger car produced; its successor, the T4, was the last. The T4 was a four-door sedan that could reach 60 MPH in 8 seconds and get 20 miles per gallon of gasoline, diesel fuel or kerosene. A turbine-powered Rover-BRM was driven by Graham Hill and Richie Ginther at Le Mans in 1963, but was not entered for competition. Two years later, Ginther and Jackie Stewart finished 10th overall in the re-bodied car.

This article originally appeared in the April, 2011 issue of Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car.